Groundwater Basin Storage in Southern California

Abstract: The feasibility of implementing a groundwater storage program in the Chino Groundwater Basin (Chino Basin) to increase the firm yield of the SWP (California State Water Project) is considered. The Chino Basin consists of about 220 square miles of the upper Santa Ana River watershed and is located east of Los Angeles on the western side of San Bernardino County. Under the storage program proposed, excess SWP water would be delivered to the Chino Basin and stored underground or exchanged for water in storage during periods when there are abundant supplies in the SWP system. The 3 projects considered would require nearly 1,700,000 acre-feet (AF) of storage capacity in the Chino Groundwater Basin. By utilizing this amount of storage capacity, the firm yield of the SWP would increase by 184,000 AF/yr.